Manchester City Player Performance Hack

Applications Now Closed

***NEWSFLASH***

We’re extremely excited to announce...there will be a £10,000 cash prize fund available at HackMCFC!

If you were umming and ahhing about applying to take part, now’s the time. The deadline for applications is 10am on Monday 11th July.

The cash prize fund is not all, we’ve a raft of other incredible prizes on offer for the selected participants, including VIP tickets for games, behind the scenes tours, signed shirts, and invitations to specially convened innovation labs with the club’s performance analysis and data insights teams.

We’re not just looking for sports scientists or analysts, we’re also keen to receive applications from programmers, designers, entrepreneurs and creative minds who are perhaps intrigued by trying their arm with some high performance sports data. So share away, and we look forward to hearing from you!

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Join us at the City Football Academy, located at the Etihad Campus, to experience our training and performance set up. We're hosting an unforgettable weekend where you’ll have access to exclusive data and insights.

In another world first, Manchester City (MCFC) is opening up incredibly detailed match data. We're inviting you to create new insight, innovation, visualisations and products.

For this unique Hackathon, data partners OptaPro and ChyronHego will release previously unavailable data and APIs. These feature in-match events, player performance and detailed biometric tracking.

We want the most talented, insightful, innovative and creative programmers, designers, visualisers and innovators. To work alongside them, we’d also welcome sports scientists and data analysts.

TWO TRACKS

The Premier Hack

For experienced data scientists, developers, designers and product *strikers* to get straight on the pitch. You’ll get full access to all the data and APIs to get stuck in over 48 hours.

The Academy

Digital innovation experts and event supplier, Play, will run a prototyping workshop for anyone new to hacks. Come along and pick up new skills in an incredibly dynamic environment.

Application deadline

The deadline for applications is 10am on Monday 11th July.

Days

Hours

Minutes

Seconds

The Data

We’ve been collating a huge amount of data, some open, some closed. OptaPro and ChyronHego are collaborating with us to provide in game data gathered from 10 games played during the last Premier League season.

The material we’ve sourced is cutting edge and unfiltered. Meaning you’ll have the best possible information and tools available to you.

There will be an early release of the data to successful registrants a couple of weeks before the hack. Mentors and SME's will also be available pre-event.

Outline of what the data is

For each game, movement, position & speed data for all players, officials & the ball. In total 4.5 million data points per game

The Schedule

Friday July 29th - 6pm

Kick Off Meetup

Pre-hack introductions, team formation, chats and laughs in the player training areas at the Etihad Campus, Manchester. Meet the mentors, all the data, APIs and there is a possibility (to be confirmed) of seeing how some of this data is generated in realtime. Refreshments will be available.

Saturday July 30th - 9am

Hack Day One

A warm welcome followed by the start of the hack.

If you have an idea and you’re ready to go we can get you set up with the APIs and data you need to get started.

Don't have an idea? The Play team will be facilitating idea and product development sessions to help you get going.

For lunch, eat like a professional footballer and keep your stamina up for the afternoon’s activities.

Sunday July 31st

Hack Day Two

Start early and complete hacking your ideas. Final Whistle is at 1pm.

The Final Whistle - 1pm

After all the hard work it’s time to pitch your ideas back to the panel of judges.

Then you’ll be welcomed into the matchday experience with tickets to see Manchester City Women's FC vs Sunderland. Including a chance to access the state of the art Academy Stadium facilities. Meanwhile the judges will make the difficult decisions.

Award and prize presentations - 4pm

After the game and refreshments the judges will deliver their verdicts at 4pm.

A cash prize fund will be available & participants may be offered work experience / mentoring with CFG at CFG's discretion.

Where?

Who should apply?

Anyone can apply for a place on the hack. From experienced professional developers to students to season ticket holders with an idea. Everyone is welcome. We’re looking for analysts, visualisers, programmers, designers and anyone in between.

We encourage applications from seasoned pros as well as young prodigys, we’re open to all. Please note places are very limited so register here and do let us know why you want to attend the hack.

The deadline for applications is 10am on Monday 11th July. We will let successful applicants know by the 15th July 2016.

FAQ

What is a Hackathon?

Hackathons have long been staple events in the Technology Industry since the late 1990s. A Hackathon is an intense event that brings together people who love tech. This might include software developers, designers and user interface specialists along with industry experts and professionals to identify issues and create software solutions, usually within a weekend.

For this hack we are opening up new commercially valuable football data. We will be looking for new ideas, insights and opportunities related to football.

Who should register?

Highly skilled people who love solving problems and finding opportunities. They might also love data, football and technology and not necessarily in that order!

The key qualities we are looking for are relevant skills, curiosity, enthusiasm and drive.

The Academy - We are also looking for young tech talent who want to learn more about designing and prototyping solutions. We will be on hand to support a small group of over 16s who want to make something incredible.

What is the selection criteria?

We are aiming to build small teams of 5 to solve some hack challenges. The selection will be made on suitability, skills and approach to the registration.

Due to the limited number of places, if oversubscribed, we will prioritise those who can demonstrate something interesting that they’ve discovered, made or want to make.

What do I bring?

Bring your own laptop. Sample hack data will be available a couple of weeks before the event and mentors and SME's made available to warm up with.

This will be a weekend to remember for all.

For those who wish to 'sleep in the office' do please bring a sleeping bag and toiletries.

Great performance food and drink will be provided throughout the weekend.

What is the goal of the Hackathon?

We want a creative, fun and exciting environment. MCFC want to connect data, technology, designers, football and developers to create new solutions.

We know it takes longer than a weekend to build great solutions. This is ample time to form teams of good people to begin creating great solutions. They might even be commercially interesting for you and for the club.

How do I form or join a team and why?

The team from Play will help form teams of people with complementary interests and skills.

If you would like to start a team or are looking for a team to join, be sure to attend the Friday evening mixer. If you can't attend on Friday, make an announcement at the opening ceremony of the event.

We will also be hosting online discussion and collaboration forums in advance of the event. You’ll be able to preview some of the data available here, as well as meeting potential team members.

If you want to register as a ‘pre-formed’ team, let us know, there are a very limited number of places for this available.

What are the prizes?

£10,000 cash prize fund

Potential work experience on offer

1 guest / vip box for 4 at home game

1 pair of tickets to opening day home game

1 behind the scenes tour

1 signed shirt

An invitation to a specially convened innovation lab and lunch with the performance analysis/data insights team, post event

Who owns my work and IP?

We are proposing a very open model:

You own the IP you generate at the Hack.

The data provided for the hack will be for the duration of the hack only and you will be expected to delete it after the hack.

All work created during the hack must be handed over to CFG before the participants leave the event with CFG stipulating that they will not use this for external commercial purposes without consent from the participants who have created the new IP.

If you wish to pursue any commercial development in respect of this intellectual property then CFG has a right of first refusal to collaborate with you.

Participants will need to sign an NDA.

Great, and I’d ace it, but it’s over a weekend and I have childcare responsibilities - are you putting anything in place for people like me?

Please email us if you have specific questions about childcare, as we will be able to provide suitable activities, accommodation, and some special extras if there is sufficient demand.

Is the hack free?

Yes, the hack is completely free.

We'll even provide great performance food and drink throughout the weekend.

Come and be comfortable at City Football HQ - We encourage everyone to stay over the weekend. Various accommodation options will be made available, all for free.

Is food, drink and overnight accommodation provided?

Yes, Yes & Yes and it is all free!!!

Great performance food and drink will be provided throughout the weekend.

Come and be comfortable at City Football Academy. We encourage everyone to stay over the weekend. Various accommodation options will be made available, all for free, but you will need to fund your own travel to the event.

City Football Group - the owner of football related clubs and businesses including Manchester City FC, New York City FC, Melbourne City FC and Yokohama F-Marinos.

Premier League - The Premier League is the organising body of the Barclays Premier League with responsibility for the competition, its Rule Book and the centralised broadcast and other commercial rights.

OptaPro - OptaPro is the world's leading live, detailed sports data provider. OptaPro collect, package, analyse and distribute more live data, in more detail, than anyone else. It allows for more innovative broadcast coverage, more engaging online and print reporting and more intelligent professional analysis.

Chryonhego - ChyronHego is a global leader in broadcast graphics creation, playout, and real-time data visualisation offering a wide variety of products and services for live television, news, sports, corporate and government video production.

Play - Play designs what’s next. We help companies accelerate innovation and invent magnetic new customer experiences.